Please, don't leave me
by 8 O'clock
Summary: AU - A princess and her dragon :"In fairy tales, the princess has normally golden hair and big blue eyes. She's so graceful and sings so well that even beasts are charmed. The princess I got was a wild child."


I slowly turn around on my belly. My body is totally hurt, the pain is immense. My head seems to be diving in a pool of blood, my blood. I might be exaggerating, but I already know that I won't last long. My vision is blurred and my ears are whistling. It's really annoying. I've always known that I would die in a battle, after all, fighting is what I do better: destroy and devastate lands, be like death itself on the battlefield, be covered by the blood of others, scare populations, show my cruelty without limits… But not in that kind of battle, not that death, I don't want to die by the hand of a simple human.

I raise my wings to give a better look at my belly. The scales, normally grey are black because of the blood that soaks them. The fresh and hot smell of blood is invading my nostrils. I can also smell metal, human sweat and the perfume of death. The whole stinks, my vision is becoming vaguer. I can barely hear deep laughs, human's laughs. I groan when I feel a weight against my shoulder, one of those bastards must be pressing his leg against my shoulder. The simple idea that he might be cleaning his boots on my scales is repulsing me. Normally, I should be crushing them under my legs and sending theirs heads at the other side of the room. I even don't have the strength to feel wrath, or maybe it's sadness. All of this because of her.

She came four years ago. It wasn't a child anymore, neither an adult. Her parents, the king and the queen began to pay me to guard their brat and to protect her (personally, I wouldn't like to be them if the people had learned that they were spending the money of the taxes in such things). Actually, they wanted their daughter, the princess, to meet her prince charming like in fairy tales. The idea of the century for them, but a really stupid idea for me. What guaranty them that the princess would be rescue before being an old woman? That the knight would be smart, awesome and with many others qualities? That it would be love at first sight? But I never complained or gave my opinion about this idea; at least, I was well paid.

In fairy tales, the princess has normally golden hair and big blue eyes. She's so graceful and sings so well that even beasts are charmed. The princess I got, Levy, was a wild child. A true one, that wouldn't let herself being intimidated by anyone, even not by a dragon. A little shrimp, with brown eyes and wild blue hair (who's got blue hair anyway?!). At that time, I used to tell myself that it would only last some months, that it was because of the separation with her family. Bullshit. She didn't miss her parents a single time and was driving me crazy. I can't even remember the number of time that I had to fly after her when she was trying to run away. She's a fast one, but I don't think princess are allowed to run in castles. Or the number of time when I had to force her to come down because she was climbing everywhere, the walls, the trees… A real squirrel. One day, if I hadn't be there to catch her, she would have probably died. But I don't think I would have preferred to be trapped for years with a stupide princess that only thinks about her beauty and weddings.

I have been paid all those years to protect her, but she doesn't need anybody to protect her. She could manage everything alone. My snout (that was a nose at that moment because I was under my human form) remembers well the kick that she gave me. And I remember well the sound that it did when it broke. It was nothing for me, since I've had worst wounds. But for her, it was a victory. To calm her, I proposed to give her fighting classes, which she accepted with distrust at the beginning. It was risky, but I don't think that knitting or cooking classes would have helped her to calm down. She was only calm when she was reading; otherwise she was like a spitfire. The advantages or the fighting classes were that I could be watching over her and hit her a little bit (revenge by little amount). My plan works so well that she's too tired after to run away.

I don't think that our relationship was so bad; after all, we could manage to stay civilized when we were talking. We used to speak of nothing and everything. And that's how I ended telling her stories when she couldn't sleep. But not any kind of stories, not fairy tales or dragons' gossips. My stories, my wars and battles. Stories about me. It was the first time that I was telling them to someone. Levy's favorite story is the one where I brandish the head of an important warrior to show to its army their defeat. She also loves when I'm speaking about my own legend, how I won my terrible reputation and my nicknames: Black Steel, Kurogane…

Sometimes, a knight comes but he doesn't stay long. When he's not running away, I enjoy the opportunity to eat, but always on the back of the princess, to avoid giving her bloody dreams (then what was that dream she told me the other day?). Of course, she also wants to fight, to show me that she's strong but I always refuse; people don't have to know that their princess fights _with_ her dragon. After all, that's my job, to protect her.

And then, they arrived, noisy, numerous, with weapons. Mercenaries with their prince, Rogue. Of course, they came for the princess. As always, I fought. But times are changing; men don't fight with loyalty anymore. They prefer to cheat, by using powerful poisons on their swords. I managed to kill twenty of them before feeling the poison. They went to her room, to bring her to their prince. They entered without _knocking_ and I know very well that she hates that. The first mercenary gets a broken nose and the second a broken arm. She let them fall in the stairs. They had difficulties to catch her and I can't hide the fact that I'm feeling very proud of her. All those years, she never cried, but it might be my blurred vision that is creating tears on her face.

I don't want her to go. During all this time, I realized that the true one imprisoned in this castle wasn't her, but me. I hope that I'm a prisoner in her heart. That she will be able to run away from her parents and this prince. I can see her trying to fight, and screaming my name but she soon disappears from my vision. Please, don't leave me…


End file.
